Category: Sport

Chelsea chief exec says that the club’s record losses – a staggering £180 million, the highest ever recorded in British, and probably European football history – are because of “a series of exceptional one off rises.”

“These figures reflect the continuing restructuring of the business which we began in 2003-4,” Chelsea chief Peter Kenyon told the club website.

“The rise is down to some exceptional items that were necessary to help us in our aim to break-even by 2009-10.”

The termination of a deal with Umbro, which cost £25.5m, plus a total loss of £22.8m over the transfers of Adrian Mutu and Juan Sebastien Veron and the £5m for Academy recruitment were picked out as the “exceptional items”.

Hang on. £25.5m plus £22.8m plus £5m only adds up to a little over £50 million. Even taking these figures into account, Chelsea lost almost £130 million last year, which would still be a record loss.